Locoregional Recurrence and Survival Rates after Breast-Conserving Surgery and Hormonal Therapy in 70-Year-Old or Older Patients with Stage I or IIA Breast Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Data for treatment of elderly women (≥ 70 years) with estrogen receptor-positive early stage breast cancer are available. We have compared different treatment options to determine whether lumpectomy (LU) plus adjuvant hormonal therapy (HT) is as effective as combined LU, HT, and radiotherapy (RT).

METHOD: Medical records of elderly patients over 69 years of age who had been treated for T1N0M0 (stage I) and T2N0M0 (stage IIA) at 2 different medical centers between March 2004 and January 2011 were assessed, and 35 patients were included in this study. 21 of these patients underwent only breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and HT (Group 1: T1N0M0-Group 1a, n = 16; T2N0M0-Group 1b, n = 5) and the others either BCS, HT and RT (Group 2, n = 4) or BCS, chemotherapy (CT), HT and RT (Group 3, n = 10). Adjuvant HT for all the patients comprised aromatase inhibitors.

RESULTS: The mean follow-up period for Groups 1, 2 and 3 were 32.2, 31.3 and 20.4 months, respectively. No locoregional recurrence or cancer-specific mortality occurred in any of these patients; 1 patient from Group 1 died of a different cause.

DISCUSSION: The BCS+HT regimen seems to be an efficient treatment option for early stage breast cancer in selected 70-year-old and older patient groups.